(Digital Editor's Note: This article appeared first in the June 2023 edition of the print version of The Stand.)
From fear to faith, from family poverty to the awards podium, film director Timothy Mahoney’s life is a remarkable journey. As a young boy, he fled with his mother and three siblings to escape threats from his troubled, abusive father.
In his career, Mahoney has been highly lauded for incisive research and insightful documentaries that validate the veracity of biblical history. His notable professional journey began in 2014 with the production of Patterns of Evidence: Exodus.
His latest release, Patterns of Evidence: Journey to Mt. Sinai, Part II, had a theater release in May.
This exclusive interview for The Stand focuses on Mahoney’s personal faith journey, which is also captured in the engaging documentary The Journey Home. His words on the film and below demonstrate an authentic merger of personal faith and professional excellence.
The Stand: How did your family adversities make you stronger?
Timothy Mahoney: Well, my mother and my grandmother were such strong believers in prayer. Some people think praying makes you weak. But I’ve found that praying actually makes you stronger and stronger. Because you then know that there’s something greater than yourself.
We lived on welfare. I think my mother only got around three hundred and something dollars a month. But God provided. If there were specific things we needed to pray about, we would pray and then trust the Lord.
TS: When did you become interested in filmmaking?
TM: I grew up without a TV, and I never, ever experienced a movie until I was 18 years old. Because we considered them sinful. My mother didn’t think it was a good thing to go to movies.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association [BGEA] was in Minneapolis. We lived between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and when [the BGEA] released the Christian movie The Hiding Place, people were talking about it at my church.
I asked my mother if I could go see this movie. And she said, “You know, I think it’d be alright.” I ended up going three times in a week to the same movie. Watched it over and over and over.
I went to a Christian college and earned a two-year degree. I thought I was going into radio. Then I heard a radio commercial for a film school and transferred there. And that’s when things started to connect.
TS: Give us one scriptural principle that strongly impacts your life.
TM: Ephesians 2:10 has meant an awful lot to me in the last decade or so – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (NIV). I would say that’s a very good life verse. My wife actually made me aware of that verse. And it was an encouragement to realize that the Lord knew that I would be here before the beginning of time.
God has prepared things for us to do. And that’s why I think it’s so important to pay attention and not to be distracted. The enemy wants to distract us from a lot of things. That’s the danger of media right now – to be distracted from the things God has prepared for us to do.
TS: You thought your first project, Patterns of Evidence: Exodus, would be a one-year endeavor. What happened?
TM: I just was confused. It seemed as if the Exodus and this investigation were so large I didn’t know what to do.
TS: Did you ever consider dropping the whole effort?
TM: No. I never thought that I would stop. I felt that we were supposed to do something. I had already made a commitment, and we had quite a bit of interesting footage.
TS: The Ephesians 2:10 principle – pay attention?
TM: I said, “I think there are many films in this.” It expanded so much. There was so much… So, I felt as if the Lord was saying, “This is how big it is!” And a lot of that early footage is still waiting to be put into movies … interviews with people like Israeli prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu [1996-1999, 2009-2021, 2022-present] and Shimon Peres [1984-1986, 1995-1996] telling the story of the Bible.
Some of that hasn’t been revealed yet. And that’s why we’re working hard now to continue to produce several films a year
TS: How can a believer apply the biblical Exodus account to practical living?
TM: Well, you know the Bible talks about the fact that we’re living in a fallen world. And until we come to know the Savior, we’re under the bondage of sin, right?
And what ends up happening is that the Lord calls us. You come to salvation with Christ, and He takes you on a journey out of that world into another world. During that time, there might be times of great faith. Like when you’re trapped out at sea and it seems like you’re going to be destroyed.
My family was in that situation with my dad. My dad literally probably would have killed us at our home because he was melting down. The threat was real. But my mother called upon the name of the Lord, and relatives came at great risk and hid us away. And so that was one example of an exodus for my family to find refuge and safety.
But we all have these times when the Lord is saying, “I want you to go to another place.” And so we have to pay attention when we’re on this journey with the Lord, and He says “I’ll go with you.”
TS: How much is the faith factor at work in this process?
TM: You know the pillar of cloud went before [His people leaving Egypt]. The Lord has callings and things for us to do. He has a place where He wants us to go and to conquer it, right?
I think that’s why Ephesians 2:10 is important for me – because God has … prepared good works for us to do. But you’ve got to get up and go do the work.
For example, without even knowing if I have an answer, I have to go to Israel. Or I have to go to Egypt without knowing if I’m going to succeed or not. By faith I go there, and I try to find people to interview and I search for information.
That’s my exodus journey. And each step of the way, we are like the Israelites on a journey until the Lord calls us home to be with Him.
